The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

It only lasted two weeks...

When our friend Doug was here earlier this month, he helped me install the new water pump assembly after the motor burned out in the other one. This is the second time this summer that a motor has burned out, and it's never happened before in the four years we've been here. Strange.

The pump itself breaks down regularly, but never as often as it has this year. Yesterday, it broke down again!

In fact, I noticed a problem a couple of days ago. The pressure wasn't up to where it should be and I was pretty sure that one of the four impellers had gone.

But then when I tried to restart it after the electricity had been turned back on, it wouldn't prime properly. Then, I noticed that water was leaking out between the pump and the electric motor.

Our regular pump repair guy is away on holiday, but I've taken this pump apart before, so I disconnected it all and hauled it up to the shop. Fortunately, he had left a box of spare parts the last time he was here and I was hoping it had the part I needed.

Hmm. I hope I can put it all back together again!

The rear seal was gone. The one on the right is the old one. 
Supposed to look like the one on the left!

One of the impellers was gone too. The one on the right is the old one. 
Supposed to look like the one on the left!

And one of the four diffusers was broken as well.

All back together. 
You can see the other old pump with the burned out motor in the background.

The question is, why are the impellers and diffusers breaking after such a short time? Doesn't make any sense. They should be lasting a couple of months or more, not two weeks. I mean sure, the pump runs non-stop 24/7, but these are heavy duty pumps that are designed to run a long time. I don't get it. Between our main pump and the seven sewer pumps, we sure have had a lot of pump problems this year! It sure is frustrating. 

A smokey sky this morning.

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11 comments:

  1. Are you sure your pump is getting "clean" water? i.e. no tiny rocks etc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's certainly not cleanly filtered. But the intake is sitting about three feet off the bottom of the lake, so while it does probably intake some fine silt, I wouldn't think it would get anything larger than that.

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  2. You're right, it should have lasted longer than that. Good that you had the spare parts and technical ability to get it back on line. Fingers crossed it lasts longer this time, you know it has been put together right. :cD

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We sure think that it should have lasted longer as well! Hopefully this time it will last until we have to turn it off for the season. We will keep our fingers crossed.

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  3. My first thought was it was picking up chunks of something, but it may well be it had defective parts from the get go?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Who knows why it is breaking down so much this year, it's definitely a mystery! As Kevin mentioned, it is possible that the fine silt gets in there and messes it up, we have had quite a bit of wind this year which turns up the water a fair bit.

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  4. Arghh. Good job on the self-repair. Maybe with all the weird bugs in the air, there is a corresponding increase in water life? Or they cheaped out on the quality of the replacement parts.

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    Replies
    1. Who knows! You would think when Kevin took it apart that he would see some kind of evidence of "water life" if that was the case. I don't think they cheaped out on the replacement parts, they have always been the same any other time. We are keeping our fingers crossed that it will last for the rest of the season.

      Delete
  5. We each have our own talents in which we excel, but I'd trade some of mine for some of yours!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, won't it be a great world if everyone could have a little knowledge and know-how about almost everything!

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